As mobile communications devices, also commonly referred to as User Equipment (UE), mobile stations, terminals, smart phones, and so forth, become more technologically advanced they are becoming capable of providing more than just voice connectivity. In addition to providing voice connections, the technologically advanced mobile communications devices may enable users to web surf, stream multimedia, share images, serve as access points for computers, and so forth, at continually increasing data rates.
Studies have shown that the world-wide market penetration of advanced mobile communications devices will double in the next few years, increasing from approximately 16 percent of the total mobile communications devices market to about 37 percent of the total mobile communications devices market. Furthermore, data (e.g., web-data, multimedia, images, computer data, and so on) may double each year, every year, for the immediate future.
As an example, mobile Internet has become a common platform to allow users to share information and content using advanced mobile communications devices. Streaming video applications, based on hyper-text transfer protocol (HTTP)/transmission control protocol (TCP), are becoming a dominant traffic pattern in mobile Internet. However, these applications may consume a considerable amount of bandwidth.
Therefore, deployment of such large numbers of the advanced mobile communications devices may place a huge burden on bandwidth capabilities of wireless communications systems, which must continue to increase bandwidth capabilities to ensure adequate performance to satisfy user demands.